link list

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Long-sleeve ruffle trim tee tutorial

Time for another tee tutorial!
It's been a while, but I used to do these all the time. Inspired by J.Crew and Anthro, you can make all kinds of cute embellished tees with self-fabric ruffles and strips.
This time, I used a tee I got for $2 or so on clearance at Old Navy:

The scoop neck is more flattering on me than a crew neck, and I was looking forward to doing something funky and creative with it. Here's an Anthro inspiration:

Inspired by that and other cute embellished tees, I pulled out some scraps from other tee makeovers I've done!

If you don't have scraps from other projects, refer to one of my other tee tutorials on how to cut off the sleeves and turn them into strips to use and embellish with!

Here's the tutorial:

Place your strips on the tee and see how you like them. I was thinking several stripes, alternating.

Add things on until you like it:

Make each strip 1.5-2 times as long as you want them to be when gathered. That means, on a scoop neck shirt, the center strips will be a little shorter than the outer edge ones.

Now, keeping track of which strip goes where, gather each one using a large stitch and a tight tension:

Now, get ready to place the strips on the tee. Find the center of the tee, by folding it in half. Mark with a pin or fabric marker.

To make stripes of gathered strips, use a ruler to make parallel lines however far apart you want your strips. Mine were 3/4" apart.

Mark off the bottom of your stripes so they all end at the same place!

Begin to pin on the ruffles. Make sure they don't twist, and that they're right side up.

Hi! I've been checking out your blog for quite a while and today I just had to comment. That shirt turned out so cute, I just wanna make one of my own (but I don't have a sewing machine yet). Your tutorial is really very good, it seems so easy to make and the end result... simple but spectacular! :)

Thanks, everyone!@Rhonda, yes, the wide ruler is a great tool. I got mine in the cutting tools part of JoAnn's. Not even expensive if you use a coupon!@bbp, thanks, that lace is just simple all-cotton crocheted lace. I think I got it at JoAnn's with the by-the-yard trims!